Healthcare and hospital_industr1

HEALTHCARE AND HOSPITAL INDUSTRY

Healthcare industry is a wide and intensive form of services which are

related to well being of human beings. Health care is the social sector and it

is provided at State level with the help of Central Government. Health care

industry covers hospitals, health insurances, medical software, health

equipments and pharmacy in it.

Right from the time of Ramayana and Mahabharata, health care was there

but with time, Health care sector has changed substantially. With

improvement in Medical Science and technology it has gone through

considerable change and improved a lot.

The major inputs of health care industries are as listed below:

I. Hospitals

II Medical insurance

III. Medical software

IV. Health equipments

Health care service is the combination of tangible and intangible aspect with

the intangible aspect dominating the intangible aspect. In fact it can be said

to be completely intangible, in that, the services (consultancy) offered by

the doctor are completely intangible. The tangible things could include the

bed, the décor, etc. Efforts made by hospitals to tangiblize the service

offering would be discussed in details in the unique characteristics part of

the report.

Different types of health care services available in India

Hospitals

Pathology Clinics

Blood Banks

Meditation Centres

Emergency services like Ambulances, etc.

Online Medical Services

Telemedicine

Naturopathy

Yoga Centres

Fitness Centres

Laughter Clubs

Health Spas

In the Constitution of India, health is a state subject. Central govt’s

intervention to assist the state govt is needed in the areas of control and

eradication of major communicable & non- communicable diseases, policy

formulation, international health, medical & para-medical education along

with regulatory measures, drug control and prevention of food adulteration,

besides activities concerning the containment of population growth including

safe motherhood, child survival and immunization Program. The plan outlay

for central sector health programme in the Annual Plans 1997-98 is

Rs.920.20 crore including a foreign aid component of Rs.400 Crore. A major

portion of outlay is for the control and eradication of diseases like malaria, ,

blindness being implemented under Centrally sponsored schemes.

Another major component of the central sector health programme is purely

Central schemes through which financial assistance is given to institutions

engaged in various health related activities. These institutions are

responsible for contribution in the field of control of communicable & non-

communicable diseases, medical education, training, research and parent

-care.

In our project our focus has been the hospital sector which is the major

component of the healthcare industry.

The Hospital Industry

Some Facts

• India’s healthcare industry is currently worth Rs 73,000 crore which

is roughly 4 percent of the GDP. The industry is expected to grow at

the rate of 13 percent for the next six years which amounts to an

addition of Rs 9,000 crores each year.

• The national average of proportion of households in the middle and

higher middle income group has increased from 14% in 1990 to 20 %

in 1999.

• The population to bed ratio in India is 1 bed per 1000, in relation to

the WHO norm of 1 bed per 300.

• In India, there exists space for 75000 to 100000 hospital beds.

• Private insurance will drive the healthcare revenues. Considering the

rising middle and higher middle income group we get a conservative

estimate of 200 million insurable lives

• Over the last five years, there has been an attitudinal change amongst

a section of Indians who are spending more on healthcare.

Corporate hospitals mushroomed in the late eighties. The boom remained

shortlived and out of the 22 listed hospital scrips, most are being trading

below par. An increasingly fragmented market, lack of statistics, capital

intensive operations and a long gestation period are all wise reasons to shy

away from investing in the healthcare industry. Government and trust

hospitals dominate the scene. Many of the trust hospitals suffer from poor

management. Good corporate hospitals are still too few to amount to a

critical mass.

Corporate hospitals failed a decade ago because they emerged in isolation

and weren’t part of a larger phenomenon. However, now, there are the

insurance companies, the hospital hardware and the software companies that

have come together to create the boom.

Factors Attracting Corporates In the Healthcare Sector

Recognition as an industry: In the mid 80’s, the healthcare sector was

recognized as an industry. Hence it became possible to get long term funding

from the Financial Institutions. The government also reduced the import

duty on medical equipment’s and technology, thus opening up the sector.

Since the National Health Policy (the policy’s main objective was ‘Health For

All’ by the Year 2000) was approved in 1983, little has been done to update

or amend the policy even as the country changes and the new health

problems arise from ecological degradation. The focus has been on

epidemiological profile of the medical care and not on comprehensive

healthcare.

Socio-Economic Changes: The rise of literacy rate , higher levels of income

and increasing awareness through deep penetration of media channels,

contributed to greater attention being paid to health. With the rise in the

system of nuclear families, it became necessary for regular health check-ups

and increase in health expenses for the bread-earner of the family.

Brand Development: Many family run business houses, have set-up charity

hospitals. By lending their name to the hospital, they develop a good image in

the markets which further improves the brand image of products from their

other businesses.

Extension To Related Business: Some pharmaceutical companies like

Wockhardt and Max India, have ventured into this sector as it is a direct

extension to their line of business.

Opening Of The Insurance Sector: In India, approx. 60% of the total

health expenditure comes from self paid category as against governments

contribution of 25-30 %. A majority of private hospitals are expensive for a

normal middle class family. The opening up of the insurance sector to private

players is expected to give a shot in the arms of the healthcare industry.

Health Insurance will make healthcare affordable to a large number of

people. Currently, in India only 2 million people ( 0.2 % of total population of

1 billion), are covered under Mediclaim, whereas in developed nations like

USA about 75 % of the total population are covered under some insurance

scheme. General Insurance Company, has never aggressively marketed health

insurance. Moreover, GIC takes upto 6 months to process a claim and

reimburses customers after they have paid for treatment out of their own

pockets. This will give a great advantage to private players like Cigna which

is planning to launch Smart Cards that can be used in hospitals, patient

guidance facilities, travel insurance, etc.

The Consultants, Financiers and Insurance Agencies are to benefit from this

boom. The insurers will use PPOs, that will grow into HMOs, to assume

insurance risks on clients behalf. Medical Equipments, Medical Software and

Hospitals will see the biggest boom.

THE SERVICE MARKETING TRIANGLE:

HOSPITAL

DOCTOR PATIENT
 Company: Here, the hospital is the company that dreams up an idea of

service offering (treatment), which will satisfy the customer’s

(patient’s) expectations (of getting cured).

 Customer: The patient who seeks to get cured is the customer for

the hospital as he is the one who avails the service and pays for it.

 Provider: Doctor, the inseparable part of the hospital is the provider,

as he is the one who comes in direct contact with the patient. The

reputation of the hospital is directly in the hands of the doctor. A

satisfied patient is a very important source of word of mouth

promotion for the organization.

Classification of Hospitals

HOSPITALS

Objective Ownership Path Size
Allopath District
Teaching- Government
cum-
Research
Ayurved Taluk
Semi-Govt

General
Homeo Primary
Voluntary Health
Agencies Centre
Special
Unani
Private
Charitable Teaching

Others

-Unique Characteristics: -

The service industry has the following characteristics.

1) Intangibility: -
Intangibility means that a customer would have to visualize

the service offering. Since the offering cannot be seen or felt there

would be no stock and hence one would not be able to jeep a track of

the sales etc. This characteristic also makes it different to measure

the benefits and utilities of the product. An individual would only be

able to experience the same.

In the product service continuum, hospitals fall in the bracket of

highly intangible where the service has credence qualities.

i) The services of a doctor i.e. the consulatation provided by

the doctor , his diagnosis etc cannot be touched felt or

seen. One can only visulalise the same.

ii) They can also not measure the benefits. These can only be

experienced by the customer.

There is no ownership over the doctor or the services

provided by him .

The remedial measures to overcome intangibility are:-

a) The marketer should visualize the product/service for the

patient.In case of hospitals any visual of the

hospital displaying the well maintained interiors, the hi-tech

equipments used for treatment would help to

tangibilise the product.

b) Association: -

The association of a hospital with any well known

personality would help as a good image building exercise . It would

also give the customer a certain level of confidence regarding the

services provided in the hospital.

For (eg 1)- Hospitals like the Tata Memorial Hospital or the

Hinduja hospital are associated with Corporate Houses. They are

owned by these corporate families.

Hence a customer is sure about the services provided in these

hospitals.

(eg 2)The Dinanath Mangeshkar Hospital. Since it is owned by

Lata Mangeshkar the customer is sure to receive quality services.

c)Physical Representation :-

Intangibility could also be overcome in case of hospital

through physical Representation in the form of :-

1)Color- The Red Cross signifies the Hospital.

2)Uniforms- The white uniforms of the Doctors And Nurses

in enemy hospitals.

3)Symbols – The Red Cross is the common logo with which

people indentify hospitals.

Also logos of hospitals like Wockhardt.

4)Buildings – In case of hospitals the external appearance

of the building or the maintenance i.e how well maintained it

is

d)Documentation –There are a numbers of hospitals which have received

ISO 9000 certificates.

( Eg) Apollo Hospital.

2) Perishability

A services cannot be stored . So if the service is not consumed immediately

then it loses its value.

For Eg – If a doctor does not reach his dispensary on time or has his clinic

locked for that particular day. He loses all his patients for that day.

A situation may also arise when the doctor may be unable to attend to

some of his patients due to a huge rush. In such a case again the doctor

could lose out on all his patients.Same would be the situation faced by the

hospitals. In such a case the hospital too may lose all its patients for that

day.

-Solution to the problem of perishability

a) In such a situation the doctor can appoint an assistant who could cater to

the excess patients or he could have students training under him who during

their course of training could also help him with the excess patients.

(Eg)- Rajgovind Hospital in CBD appoints interns of Medical College for

night duty on a stipend

b) Peak time Essential Services

In a rush hour situation when there are too many customers to attend

to only essential services should be catered to.

For (eg 1) In hospitals during the late night when accident reportings are

high all hands are required at the trauma centers

(eg 2) Part time volunteers for national Emergencies.

3) Variability

It means that the quality of service provided to different people may not

be the same. (ie) Irrespective of the fact that the job carried out by them

is the same the service quality may differ because they may be from

different backgrounds have different aptitude, skills, attitude etc

For Eg :- 2 Doctors, one from a municipal hospital and another from a

reputed hospital may treat a person for the same problem. But their quality

might differ. In such a case doctors/hospitals are the internal customers

and the patients are the external customers.

Since a transaction is always two way communication, a customers

willingness, background, attitude etc may also effect the transaction

For ( Eg) - A patient may want to avail of a doctors services but may not be

able to afford the services.

(Eg) A patient suffering from Arthritis may be required to lose weight for

further treatment. But the patient may not have the drive/willingness to

lose weight .

Solutions

1)The internal customers or the fresh recruiters could be given training.

They could be given a chance to perform the small parts of an operation in

order to gain experience.

1)The doctors could be given training and could be updated with all the

latest happenings in the medical field in regular intervals.

For (Eg )

AMA prescribes for its member doctors 6 weeks training every year and 6

months training every 6 years.

1)Training of External customers

( Eg) Diabetic patients are trained to inject insulin on their own

( Eg ) In Case of health care services, a gym instructor may teach his

members to use the gym equipments on their own.

( Eg ) Auto Diagnostic equipments are used in hospital.

These kind of training programmes provided to the external customer

helps to increase the quality of transaction.

4)Inseparability -

For any service to take place it is necessary that both the service provider

and the customer be present in the location at the same time

( eg) An operation cannot be conducted without the doctors presence. As a

result a number of patients due to geographical distances lose out on the

opportunity to get themselves treated from the very best surgeons and

doctors.

Solutions

This can be overcome to a certain extent through the following:-

1)Training of internal customer-

Here one experienced person can provide training to the amateurs.

For Eg A surgeon during an operation is surrounded by interns watching the

operation. They could also carry out some small parts of the operation.

2)Innovational Service-

Psychiatrists have innovated group therapy where they call in 10+

patients together to an oval conference table and encourage them to talk

about themselves and their ailments.

3) Video Conferencing

Business Conferences, Consultancy and the Medical world .Only

recently have instructions for operation through video conferencing been

initated but mostly video conferencing has been used in the medical world

as a pedagogical tool.(eg) A unique and rare brain tumour operation can be

broadcast live all over the world to subscribed medical colleges.

7 Ps of marketing for hospitals
 Product:

The service product is an offering of commercial intent having

features of both intangible and tangible, seeking to satisfy the new wants

and demands of the consumer. Hospital industry is action oriented and there

is a lot of interaction with the customers (patients). The service product of

the hospitals normally have the following features:

o Quality Level: When we talk about marketing hospitals, it is

natural that we are very particular about managing our services

in the right fashion. Supportive services play an important role

in improving the quality of medicare. These services which

include laboratory, blood-banks, catering, radiology and laundry,

in a true sense determine the quality of services made available

by medical and para-medical personnel. They get a strong base

for treatment since the diagnostic aspect determines a

direction. To get the best result from OT, it is natural that

equipments are properly sterlised. In addition, the dresses and

clothes are also required to be made bacteria free. The

patients are required to wear disinfected linen which should be

made available. The radiology department should have hi-tech

facilities keeping in view the pressure of work. Of late, we find

sophisticated equipments and unless hospitals make the same

services available the same, the quality of services cannot be

improved.

o Accessories: This is a very good way of segmenting customers.

Many hospitals provide additional services such as catering,

laundry, yoga sessions, cafeterias, etc. for the customers

(patients)who are willing to pay extra. Hospitals have different

wards - General and Special. Certain hospitals provide services

for the family members of the patients (when they are not

from the same city) – accommodation and catering.

o Packaging: It is the bundling of many services into the core

service. Eg: Apollo hospital offers a full health check-up to the

patients. Similarly other hospitals also offer package deals for

health check-ups. For example if a person has to undergo a

bypass surgery, he can pay a lump sum amount during admission,

say rupees 1 lakh for all procedures, tests, stay, etc, at once.

o Product line: hospitals through their services offer many

choices to the patients and cover a wide range of customer

needs. For example: Apollo hospital has dental department,

cardiology department, etc. and within the dental department it

has dental surgery, root canal, etc.

o Brand name: The hospitals, to differentiate themselves, and

their services from others use a brand name. The intangibility

factor of the service makes it all the more important for the

hospitals to do so.

 Place

Under hospital marketing, distribution of Medicare services plays a crucial

role. This focuses on the instrumentality of almost all who are found involved

in making services available to the ultimate users. In case of hospitals the

location of hospital plays a very important role. The kind of services a

hospital is rendering is also very important for determining the location of

the hospital.

Eg. Tata memorial hospital specializes in cancer treatment and is located at

a centre place unlike other normal hospitals, which you can find all over

other places.

It can be unambiguously accepted that the medical personnel need a fair

blending of two important properties i.e. – they should be professionally

sound and should have in-depth knowledge at psychology. A particular doctor

might be famous for his case handling records but he may not be made

available for all the patients because of the place factor. Now in this case

the service provided, that is the doctor may be a visiting doctor for

different hospitals at different locations to beat the place factors.

Unlike other service industries, under hospital marketing all efforts should

be for making available to the society the best possible medical aid.

In a country like India, which is geographically vast and where majority of

the population lives in the rural areas, place factor for the hospitals play a

very crucial role. A typical small village / town may be having small

dispensaries but they will not have super speciality hospitals. For that they

will have to be dependent on the hospitals in the urban areas.

 People

Under hospital marketing the marketing mix variable people includes all the

different people involved in the service providing process (internal

customers of the hospitals) which includes doctors, nurses, supporting staff

etc. The earliest and the best way of having control on the quality of people

will be by approving professionally sound doctors and other staff.

Hospital is a place where small activity undertaken can be a matter of life

and death, so the people factor is very important. One of the major

classifications of hospitals is – private and government. In the government

hospital the people factor has to be specially taken care of. In Indian

government hospitals except a few almost all the hospitals and their

personnel hardly find the behavioural dimensions significant. It is against

this background that even if the users get the quality medical aid they are

found dissatisfied with the rough and indecent behaviour of the doctors.

Under hospital marketing a right person for the right job has to be

appointed and they should be adaptable and possess versatility. The patients

in the hospitals are already suffering from trauma, which has to be

understood by the doctors and other staff. The people of the hospital

should be constantly motivated to give the best of their effort.

 Process

Process generally forms the different tasks that are performed by the

hospital. The process factor is mainly dependent on the size of the hospital

and kind of service it is offering. A typical process involved in a medium

sized hospital can be as follows.

Apart from this flow there are other allied activities like record keeping

administration at services etc which fall under the process factor. These

stages do not exist separately but are interlinked. The most important

elements are lines of communication within the setup. The experience of the

patient depends on the final interplay of all these factors.

 Physical evidence

It does play an important role in health care services, as the core benefit a

customer seeks is proper diagnosis and cure of the problem. For a local small

time dispensary or hospital physical evidence may not be of much help. In

recent days some major super speciality hospitals are using physical evidence

for distinguishing itself as something unique.

Physical evidence can be in the form of smart buildings, logos, mascots etc. a

smart building infrastructure indicates that the hospital can take care of all

the needs of the patient.

Examples -

1. Lilavati hospital has got a smart building, which helps, in developing in

the minds of the people, the impression that it is the safest option

among the different hospitals available to the people.

2. Fortis and Apollo hospitals have a unique logo, which can be easily

identified.

Physical evidence also helps in beating the intangibility factor.

 Promotion:

Hospitals for promotion use either advertisement or PR or both after

taking into consideration the target customers, media type, budget and

the sales promotion.

Since a few years the prime times in T.V. are reserved for advertising

social issues like family planning, use of different types of

contraceptives, care for the girl child and so on. These commercials use

the common man approach for reference group appeal. In case of health

care products and services use for “common man” appeal is widely

prevalent. The use of celebrities is not as effective as that of a common

man. An ordinary person thinks that if it works well for people like him, it

will also work equally well for him. The identification with the common

man is easy and quick.

Besides TV, other media of promotion are to be used innovatively. Unlike

the urban area, in rural areas newspapers and magazines do not have the

same impact in conveying messages. In villages, hoardings and wall

writings near the markets and recreation centers attract the attention

of villagers. This market consists of 180 million strong middle income

group and a small income group. This group has a large discretionary

income. These discerning consumers are very careful in choosing health

care services. The last decade has witnessed a health, appearance and

nutrition conscious population.

The health care field has become very competitive. Although around one-

fourth of our population stays in urban India, three fourths of the total

doctors have engaged themselves in this part. Many of these doctors

visit the contiguous rural areas, but they may operate from the urban

area. The patients of upper middle and upper income group have a wide

choice to make from a number of clinics and hospitals. Therefore, many

hospitals have abandoned traditions and adopted marketing strategies to

woo more and more patients to their clinics.

Word-of-mouth plays a very important role in promotion of hospitals. A

person in need of a health care service does not know for sure where to

search for relevant information. He consults his family members,

relations and friends first. The patients who come to a hospital generally

have the old patients of that hospital as referrals. Word-of-mouth plays

an important role during information acquisition stage of the customers

as there are no objective performance measures to judge the various

alternatives available to them. Therefore, satisfied past patients of a

hospital can bring more number of patients to that hospital than a

number of advertisements.

In a competitive market place, the images of the firms swill affect their

competitive standing. One factor that is likely to have a significant

impact on the health care scene is the growth of hospital chains such as

Apollo Hospitals, Birla Health Centres ,etc. Artificial heart transplants

and other complex operations although are few in number and generate a

small portion of the total revenue, they help in generating word-of-

mouth which health care providers are actually interested. Many of these

companies are spending a lot in corporate advertising for Image building.

Marketing hospitals

Marketing in Hospitals Marketing is unethical” was the frequent refrain in

the eighties, when very few hospitals realised that it was necessary to

incorporate marketing as an integral function in the hospital operations.

But the major argument at that time lay in understanding whether this

professional orientation was really required for its viability,

profitability and sustainability. This argument however became

favourable in the late nineties as corporate companies like Wockhardt

and Max India started venturing into the hospital industry, apart from

the ongoing mergers and acquisitions that were already taking place at

that time. Even the TPAs started building tie-ups with corporate

clients and there was already an abysmal utilisation of resources in the

existing hospitals. In addition to the above a major factor that

contributed to the acceptance of marketing in hospitals was an increase

in the delivery of services.

‘Perception of patients’ was another important consideration for hospitals, as

they felt that the patients would take them as profit oriented organisation

rather than service oriented organisation. Ultimately, marketing was

accepted only by a few while the others discarded the concept. Hospitals

who accepted marketing also carried out their functioned by concentrating

around corporate clients. Lately it has been felt that many Indian hospitals

have a dilemma regarding the functions of marketing. In an era where

hospitals are experiencing a major shift in their clientele, they are worried

more about the patients’ perception of hospitals and therefore the concept

of brand restructuring and brand engineering is vital.

As hospitals spend millions of rupees in technology and infrastructure, it

becomes necessary, that they attract patients and generate funds. In order,

to do the same, the hospitals follow various marketing and brand building

exercises. Some of them are listed below:

• Many hospitals have eminent personalities from the industry in their

Board of trustees. This indirectly leads to increase in, inflow of

patients, working in the companies of these Trustees. Besides the

presence of eminent personalities creates a sense of confidence in

the minds of people.

• Private hospitals can attract their shareholders by offering discounts.

For example, a special discount of 20 % on all preventive health

checks is offered to all shareholders of Apollo Hospitals Limited.

• Hospitals have long-term understanding with PPO’s (Preferred

Provider Organization), which further have understanding with

corporates. Any case of sickness found in the employees of these

corporates refer them to the PPO’s , which further sends them to the

hospital for check-ups and treatment.

• The success rate of crucial operations and surgeries, reflect the

technological and knowledge- based edge of the hospital over the

competitors. Such successes are discussed in health magazines and

newspapers, which becomes a natural advantage for the hospital.

• Some hospitals by means of their past track record have created a

niche market for themselves. For example, Hinduja Hospital is known

for its high-quality healthcare at reasonable rates, whereas Lilavati

Hospital is known for its five-star services.

• Hospitals hold seminars and conferences relating to specific diseases,

where they invite the doctors from all round the country, for detailed

discussion. This makes the hospital well known amongst the doctors,

who could in future refer complicated cases to the hospital.

• Hospitals can also promote medical colleges. This helps them to

generate extra resources in form of fees, using the same

infrastructure.

SOME PLAYERS

The Apollo Group of Hospitals

Driven by its line of being the “architect of

healthcare” in India, the Apollo Hospitals

Group, comprising of one of the largest

networks of 26 hospitals, 10 clinics and over

10,000 employees across the country,

represents the changing face of healthcare

in India contemporary and corporatised. It has been the first private

company to administer health insurance in the country and Indraprastha

Apollo Hospital in Delhi is the fourth largest corporate hospital in the world.

The Apollo group is India’s first corporate hospital, the first to set-up

hospital outside the country and the first to attract foreign investment.

With 2600 beds, Apollo is one of Asia’s largest healthcare players. The

recent merger between its 3 group companies, Indian Hospitals Corporation

Ltd., Deccan hospitals Corporation Limited and Om Sindoori Hospitals

Limited, will help the group raise money at a better rate and by consolidating

inventory, it will save around 10% of the material cost. The group is planning

to invest Rs. 2000 crore , to bulid around 15 new hospitals, in India, Sri

Lanka, Nepal and Malaysia.

Apollo claims to maintain the best of medical standards with a record of

over 7.4 million treated patients, 3,15,000 preventive health checks done,

98.5 percent success rate in 45,000 cardiac surgeries, etc. And helping the

company maintain a balance between the corporate culture and rigorous

medical excellence is recognition of IT as intrinsic to every process,

whether it is day-to-day running of hospitals, education or telemedicine.

The application of IT in the day-to-day working of the largest hospital of

the group, Indraprastha Apollo, throws light on the extent of the

automation drive within the company. The management realised the fact that

in order to have a modern hospital in place all the work processes had to be

related to IT. Hence, the need for an end-to-end integrated solution. This

led to the implementation of the Hospital Information System (HIS), which

was an integral part of the hospital inception project.

The hospital today boasts of an integrated HIS, which provides for end-to-

end integration of the various processes and functional areas within the

hospital to make for a seamless workflow. The work processes of the

hospital are primarily divided into two areas the patient (comprising of in-

patient and out-patient) and the non-patient all the back-end departments

like housekeeping, engineering, finance, materials, purchase and HRD.

The workflow process starts with the patient seeking an appointment with

the doctor. HIS contains all the information relating to appointment

schedules of the doctors. Depending on the availability of the doctor, the

patient is given the date and time of appointment. This information is then

fed into the system and the updated information is available to the doctor in

real-time.

On the date of his appointment, the patient registers himself at the counter

by filling up of a form, which contains all the basic information related to

the patient. This data is feeded into the system with a Unique Hospital

Identifier (UHI) number allotted to the patient so that by the time the

patient meets the doctor, he already has all the required basic information.

This is followed by 15 minutes of consultation with the doctor after which

the doctor gives his prescription, the data is again keyed into the system as

a patient record under his UHI and is accessible for quick reference.

One of the biggest advantages of HIS is that any medically relevant

information related to the patient is available at the click of a button,

thereby saving precious time, which means a lot when it comes to saving a

life. HIS also acts as a kind of ERP for the hospital with its automation of

various back-end areas like financial, accounting and inventory, which are

integrated with the patient areas wherever required.

The hospital has also developed a very effective mailing system for its

employees, which is based on Microsoft Exchange. The company’s Intranet is

being used to run mailing applications as well as information relating to

company policies, leave information and basic information relating to the

company.

Telemedicine Healthcare for all

A very significant IT initiative of the Apollo Hospitals Group, and of great

relevance to a developing country like India in taking healthcare to the

masses, is the area of telemedicine. Incorporated in 1999, Apollo

Telemedicine Enterprises (ATEL), the telemedicine division of the Apollo

Hospitals Group, has already set up over 10 telemedicine links between the

Apollo Institutions at Delhi, Hyderabad and Chennai and distant locations

across the country. It has developed competence in developing cost-

effective turnkey telemedicine solutions.

Teleme-dicine ensures that the benefits of hi-tech medicine can go to

everyone, and not just to people who live in big cities. The group has forged

alliances with government organisations like the Indian Space Research

Organisation (ISRO) for VSAT bandwidth and Wipro for hardware, to

provide telemedicine facilities to far-flung and rural areas. The division is

working towards developing a strong Apollo Telemedicine Network, which

allows the participant sites to collaborate with institutions in the country

and abroad, and provides their clientele access to better healthcare in areas

not adequately served by the medical community.

A patient and his doctor can interact with specialists based in the specialty

centers and receive second opinion or interpretations to complex medical

cases. The patient reports can be transmitted from a consulting canter to a

specialty canter using the telemedicine software and the communication link,

which could be ISDN or VSAT connectivity.

Other Services offered by Apollo:

-Apollo Pharmacy

Apollo Pharmacy operates round the clock catering to all your medicine

needs.

-Café Apollo

Café Apollo is a sit down dining facility of the hospital. It offers a wide

selection of snacks and a variety of meals.

-Apollo Food Plaza

There is food facility located in the atrium of the hospital serving a

delightful array of delicacies.

Timings : 8.00am - 9:00pm

-Fast Food Cafe

For the convenience of ICU attendants there is a 24 hours cafe in the ICU

lobby.

-Gift Shop

The Gift Shop carries a wide range of gifts including Confectionery, Cards,

Books, Newspapers, Magazines and other novelties.

-Bank Facilities

-The Oriental Bank of Commerce

The Indraprastha Apollo Branch of the Oriental Bank of Commerce is

located at one of the Gates.

Bank Hours

Monday to Friday : 10:00am - 2:00pm

Saturday : 10:00am - 12:00pm

The bank remains closed on Sundays and National Holidays.

-The ICICI ATM Counter

The ICICI ATM counter is also located in the hospital.

- Fortis Healthcare

Fortis is the late Ranbaxy’s Parvinder Singh’s privately owned company. The
company is a 250 crore, 200 bed cardiac hospital, located in the town of
Mohali. The company also has 12 cardiac and information centres in and
around the town, to arrange travel and stay for patients and family. The
company has plans of increasing the capacity to around 375 beds and also
plans to tie up with an overseas partner.

Max India

After selling of his stake in Hutchison Max Telecom, Analjit Singh has
decided to invest around 200 crores, for setting up worldclass healthcare
services in India. Max India plans a three tier structure of medical services
– Max Consultation and Diagnostic Clinics, MaxMed, a 150 bed multispeciality
hospital and Max General, a 400 bed hospital. The company has already tied
up with Harvard Medical International, to undertake clinical trials for drugs,
under research abroad and setting up of Max University, for education and
research.

Escorts

EHIRC located in New Delhi has more than 220 beds. The hospital has a
total 77 Critical Care beds to provide intensive care to patients after
surgery or angioplasty, emergency admissions or other patients needing
highly specialized management including Telecardiology (ECG transmission
through telephone). The EHIRC is unique in the field of Preventive
Cardiology with a fully developed programme of Monitored Exercise, Yoga
and Meditation for Life style management.

WOCKHARDT and DUNCANS GLENEAGLES INTERNATIONAL also have
major expansion plans.

This report is prepared by Mona Pandit and Parin Mehta of Sydneham
Institute of Management exclusively for India Infoline as part of their
project curriculum.

Opportunities

With global revenues of approximately US$ 2.8 trillion, the healthcare

industry is the world’s largest industry and India is emerging as a major

player in this industry, because of its high population.

As per the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA), the

Indian healthcare industry has the potential to show the same exponential

growth that the software and pharmaceutical industries have shown in the

past decade. Further, as per the IRDA, only 10 percent of the market

potential has been tapped till date and market studies indicate a 35 percent

growthin thecomingyears.

A big opportunity for the industry emerges from the privatisation of the

insurance segment, which would extrapolate into a new delivery system in

India. There is a vast insurable population in India, given that only 2 million

people ie 0.2 percent of the total population are covered under Mediclaim.

According to a recent study, there are 315 million potentially insurable lives

in the country.

A World Health Organisation report states that India needs to add 80,000

hospital beds each year to meet the demand of its population. The huge

shortage of beds outlines a major opportunity for the industry.

The healthcare industry is a fast growing industry and coupled with

strength of Indian innovative and scientific manpower and also low costs, it

is slowly achieving key industry status in India.

The Future
Healthcare industry is booming all over the world. In the US it is already the

largest service sector. And world-wide it is slated to be a $4 trillion market

by 2005. A World Bank Report in November 1999 points at the emergence

of large-scale, investor-owned hospitals in the country as a "dramatic"

development. The Corporate hospitals will play a positive role in the

healthcare sector by taking the load off government hospitals, whose

performance hasn’t been upto the mark.

The Healthcare Industry is on the threshold of a major Growth Spiral which

shall assimilate all new technologies to provide cost effective Healthcare. It

shall not only employ the largest chunk of all available capital but shall also

employ a large proportion of the skilled work force. The Healthcare

Industry is poised to become the biggest Employer in all Countries. It shall

also be the biggest consumer of all new technologies.

Specifically, in the next decade, it is anticipate that the Healthcare

Industry shall grow at an accelerated pace and will achieve a Growth Rate of

8 - 10 % per annum in India and a Growth Rate of 4 - 8 % per annum in most

of the Countries of third World. As a result, most of the Countries in the

world (Other than USA) shall add more Hospital Beds.

This accelerated growth will require a large body of skilled Healthcare

Providers. As a result, the Medical Education Sector, including Medical and

all Para-medical staff, shall also witness a faster growth. It is anticipated

that the numbers of skilled Healthcare Providers shall double in next

decade.

The addition of Hospital Beds shall catalyse a Growth in Hospital Equipment

Industry. It shall also fuel the growth of Pharmaceutical Industry. It shall

specifically affect the Medical and Surgical Supply Segment and there too,

the Prosthetic Devices Segment shall witness a very rapid growth.

In the next decade, the Earth's Population shall reach a peak number. This,

coupled with availability of better Healthcare shall lead to a higher

Expectancy of Life at Birth. The average age of Earth's Population shall

increase. This will require a far superior understanding of Multiple Organ

Syndromes and there treatments. There shall be a shift in focus of

providing Healthcare. The Hospitals shall tend to be the providers of Acute

& Intensive Healthcare; while new cost effective modalities shall provide

intermediate care or nursing only care.

These new modalities shall not follow the rigid standards as set for

Hospitals & shall employ a smaller number of trained medical manpower.

These modalities shall augment the Home Care, as is available in the Joint

Family Environment to more than half the population of world today. This will

necessitate a greater interaction between the Healthcare Provider, the

Medical Charge and the other segments of Healthcare Industry.

This growth of Healthcare Industry shall be supported by Political Will and

Social Understanding at all levels of any Society. It must, therefore, meet

the new challenges, by providing cost effective Healthcare in a manner that

improves the Quality of Humane Life.

Some Suggestions for improving the position of the hospitals

1. The general perception that large hospitals, with high bed-occupancy

rate, are profitable, is misleading. Global experience shows that hospital

with more than 250 beds don’t do well. Many Indian hospitals are

following the US healthcare industry, by decreasing the average length

of stay of patients and increasing patient turnover. US research shows

that 80% of the revenues form a patient comes in the first 72 hours

post- admission. Hospitals generate a lot of revenues from General

Inspection, because the patient turnover is very high.

A large percent of revenues come from specialized services like

operations and surgeries. It is because of these reasons that many

corporates are planning for a small 100 beds specialized hospitals, which

caters to specific diseases like cardiac, cosmetic surgery, neurology etc.

Research shows that there exist a lot of space for super-specialized

hospitals with 100-150 beds, which generate revenues equivalent to large

500 bed general hospital. Typically large hospitals with approximately

500 bed capacity takes about 9-10 years to break even whereas super-

specialty hospitals with about 100 beds take about 6-7 years to break

even. Therefore, going in for super-speciality hospitals seems to be a

more viable option today.

2. Hospitals could also generate revenues from medicines if they are

supplying them in-house. Some hospitals make it mandatory for the

patients to buy medicines from the hospital’s chemist shop. A margin of

15-20 % can be charged for such medicinal supplies. Though many

hospitals run by Trusts do not earn this way, but new entrants or

corporates for whom private healthcare sector is a direct extension of

their line of business ( eg. Pharma companies), can generate good returns

from medicine supply.

3. Health Plan packages can be provided by hospitals to family and

corporate. For example Family Health Plan Services (FHP), a subsidiary of

Apollo Hospitals does health management of employees of its

clients.With a wide net work of Hospitals and Healthcare providers

countrywide, and a tie -up with General Insurance Corporation of India,

FHP offers a range of services to employees and dependants, such as

Preventive Healthcare, Corporate Counselling, welfare Programmes,

Claims Administration, Patient-care Coordination and so on. So FHP's

healthcare packages, optimize the benefits while keeping the cost under

control.

4. Apart from preventive healthcare, stress management programs could be

provided. For example ‘Effective Stress Management Programme’ offered

by Wockhardt Hospital.This programme provides a medical perspective of

stress and is conducted by a medical professional. The programme

includes a series of one-to-one sessions, with a clinical Psychologist

highlighting the factors responsible for inducing stress, and the

methodologies, which can be adopted to cope with this phenomenon

practically.

5. Hospitals can become integrated healthcare systems i.e. when medicines,

food services, laundry and linen etc will become "purchased" services.

These third-party operations will increase the profit margins.

6. Mergers could be used for synergy of skills - i.e. to help the merged

organisations benefit from one another's individual strengths by applying

them across the board. It also helps them to make joint investments in

branding or information technology and also to react effectively to the

changed market forces.

Alternatively hospitals can go in for Group Purchases, as in USA.
The buying power of large GPOs in USA like Premier, VHA / UHC
and AmeriNet gives them the clout to exert price pressure on
suppliers, particularly for products in lower demand. And as GPOs
have consolidated, manufacturers have offered bigger discounts
to hang on to their contracts. So there exists a lot of supply
management opportunity, which will affect spending productivity.

Healthcare and hospital_industr1

Healthcare and hospital_industr1

More Related Content

What's hot

Viewers also liked

Similar to Healthcare and hospital_industr1

Recently uploaded

Healthcare and hospital_industr1